Our Services

Do you have a plan forecasting your income and expenses in Retirement to make sure that you don’t run out of money?

If not, is there a reason why you don’t?

While retiring is something most people only do once, we actually have a lot of experience helping people plan for and navigate their Retirement, so we might be able to help you too.

Our Process

We start by helping you to identify your needs. Tell us your goals and vision for your future, as well as your concerns. We’ll analyze all of your information, and provide you with a specific, detailed plan telling you exactly what we think you should do.

With your plan in place, we will build an investment portfolio using mutual funds, including those from Dimensional Fund Advisors and Vanguard, and exchange-traded funds (etfs). We will continually review your investment portfolio to make sure that your plan and your portfolio stay aligned with your needs and goals.

Our Beliefs

We invest primarily in index funds and funds that are very much like index funds. We don’t believe in market timing or stock selection or trying to beat the markets by guessing what will happen tomorrow. We believe that over time a structured investment approach will add value with a higher reliability and confidence level than one based on instinct and trying to guess the direction of the markets. We use DFA and Vanguard funds and etfs because we agree with the philosophy of investing by diversifying across asset classes based on our clients’ individual situations and needs.

Our Costs

Since we are independent and fee-only, we have no products to sell you except our advice. That means if you do need a financial product, like a mortgage or insurance, we can guide you through your purchase decision, and act as your advocate to help make sure you buy the right product for your needs, but we won’t try to sell any products to you, and never have a financial interest in doing so. We never pay or receive referral fees, and we never make commissions. Never. Our income comes from our clients, not from any third parties.

Value: The additional returns from managing the assets is hard to quantify. However, managing client behavior and tax efficiency might generate “advisor alpha” of as much as 3% a year (depending on time period), based on Morningstar research. And there is evidence that in the de-cumulation phase, managing the long-term tax rate can add as much as five years to the sufficiency of the retirement portfolio.

2) Procedural financial planning, which means organizing your financial affairs, determining the optimal risk profile of the portfolio based on the articulation of goals, and creating greater efficiency—that is, saving money on insurance coverages and taxes.

Value: the tax and insurance savings should be easy to quantify. The organizational benefits are harder to pin a value on, for some people it’s huge. And some clients will need more services than others.

3) The service element; doing chores that the client would otherwise have to do on his/her own, such as maintaining the organization of the finances, providing reports, monitoring the investments etc.

Value: Whatever the client’s time is worth, multiplied by the number of hours these chores would require for the client (not the advisor) to do. Comparable example: you could paint your own house, but a professional house painter has better tools, more experience, takes less time and will do a better job—and you can put that time to more rewarding endeavors.

4) The so-called “life planning” element of financial planning, which includes coaching. This involves helping clients uncover what they really want to accomplish with their one precious life, and creating a roadmap to getting there. And it involves ongoing coaching and holding accountable, so clients stay focused on their goals when they might otherwise become mired in other less-productive or satisfying activities.

Value: If the clients truly achieve clarity about what they want and, in addition, achieve motivation to get there, then this is incredibly valuable, putting the clients in the upper one tenth of one percent of the population, most of whom are buffeted by events and don’t really know what they want. The coaching element, and keeping track of goals that have been and are to be achieved in a quarterly statement, is also extremely valuable.

5) Peace of mind. That is, knowing that nothing is falling through the cracks, that the insurances are paid up and all the accounts are accounted for, that you are not overpaying for coverages and asset management, and that your estate is in order and your spouse will have a knowledgeable resource when you’re gone, and somebody is watching the markets who knows how to respond in the event of a catastrophe—there is certainly psychic value here.

Value: How to quantify this?

6) Concierge services. This might involve attending meetings with the estate attorney, handling the paperwork to secure loans or mortgages (or refinancing), —and who knows what else? It might also include hiring somebody to pay bills. This might also involve helping clients find appropriate facilities and services for their aging parents

Value: How to quantify this?

Our Independence

As an independent, fee-only wealth management firm, we work for our clients – not for a bank, brokerage firm or insurance company. Since we don’t sell products, never earn commissions, and don’t have sales quotas to meet, you can be sure that every piece of advice you receive from us is in your best interests.

We will also work closely with your other advisors as needed, like your CPA, your attorney, or your insurance agent, to make sure that everyone is on the same page, and working to pursue your interests.

Getting Estate Planning Done—Effectively

Yardley Wealth Management is also qualified to help you with Estate Planning. While most financial planners refer you to outside attorneys for your Estate Planning needs, the Managing Member of Yardley Wealth Management, LLC, Michael Garry is also a licensed attorney, admitted to practice in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and through his law firm, Yardley Estate Planning, LLC, he provides estate planning services.

That may be a real advantage to you because creating an estate plan that is integrated with your financial plan and that is implemented on a timely basis may be easier and accomplished more cost-effectively. Through the law firm, clients can save the time, inconvenience, and anxiety of interviewing prospective attorneys, and the duplicative effort of explaining to their new attorney about their financial situation and goals. In today’s busy world, by saving our clients the time and effort of finding and working with an additional professional, we can add real value to our clients and we can be sure that our clients’ wealth management and estate plans are fully integrated to provide better overall advice and service for them.

Michael only practices law in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and of course, legal fees are separate from, and in addition to, any fees for investment advisory services or wealth management. Please contact us to find out more about those services, and visit the Yardley Estate Planning, LLC website: www.yardleyestate.net.

To find out if our services are right for you, please call us at 267-573-1019.